Long haul travellers propelled international arrivals in Europe on first quarter of 2017

The latest results from the Air Travellers’ Traffic Barometer* produced by European Cities Marketing and ForwardKeys highlight the persistence of recovery for International arrivals in Europe on Q1 2017, marked by the return of positive performance by all subcontinents and very good progression by long haul travellers.

International arrivals in Europe 1 Jan – 31 Mar 2017 (% Share; % Var vs Prev year)

Number of long haul travellers increased by 8.3% in Q1 2017 compared to Q1 2016

Total International arrivals in Europe grew by 3.5%. This is especially due to the healthy North American market increasing its number of passengers by 6.7% when comparing the same period in 2016. The US market is taking advantage of the USD vs Euro and GBP exchange rate. Asia & Oceania increased their number of passengers, pushed by Chinese, Japanese and Indian markets. Central & South America showed a considerable improvement thanks to Brazil, Argentina and Colombia markets which represents almost 70% of the region.

Meanwhile, Intra European flows (which account for 60% of the total arrivals in Europe) remained at the same level as the previous year. But signs of a growth recovery have been observed. North America shows itself as the healthiest and steadiest market. Africa and Asia & Oceania confirm their improvement, after the drop observed during Q4 2015 and Q1 2016 that affected all of Europe because of the fear of terrorist attacks.

High increase of bookings for Q2 2017 compared to Q2 2016

The booking situation shows a significant increase in the number of arrivals in Europe for Q2 2017, most likely due to the shift in Easter holidays occurring in April in 2017 instead of March in 2016. That event is reflected in the bigger share of North America going from 16% in the Q1 2017 to 26% in the bookings for Q2. Central & South America keep on picking up strongly. Meanwhile Middle East went up, reaching 14.7% when compared with same period last year.

Top 10 destinations regarding bookings for Q2 2017 are increasing steadily

Every European city in the Top 10 destination for long haul travellers in volume, except Istanbul, is expected to rise with double digit growth for Q2 2017, as result of the shift in Easter holidays and the troublesome Q2 2016 where terrorism dramatically affected the most important destinations in Europe. German destinations fell in the ranking, with Munich disappearing from the top 10 in favour of Lisbon.

Southern destinations such as Lisbon and Madrid confirm their good performances. London, besides being the preferred European destination, shows fantastic growth for Q2 2017. This is probably due to a better currency exchange ratio.

All ECM members have exclusive access to the complete European Cities Marketing-ForwardKeys Air Travellers’ Traffic Barometer with all the graphs and analysis.

 

*This analyse is based on Air Reservation Data propriety of ForwardKeys® as of 31th March 2017. Perimeter: Includes air reservations made by passengers arriving in Europe and staying at least one night in destination, therefore excluding: “Transits”, “Day trips”, “One-way trips” and “Returns”.
Arrival period: 1 January – 31 March 2017 vs. 1 January – 31 March 2016.
Booking situation for next quarter: 1 April – 30 June 2017 vs. 1 April – 30 June 2016 according to bookings issued as of 31 March 2017 and as of 31 March 2016.

 

**ENDS**

* European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation improving the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe by providing a platform for convention, leisure and city marketing professionals to exchange knowledge, best practice and widen their network to build new business. European Cities Marketing is promoting and linking the interests of members from more than 100 major cities in 36 countries.

Contact information
Flavie Baudot, press@europeancitiesmarketing.com, +33 380 56 02 00

* ForwardKeys.com is a service of Forward Data S.L, a Market Research and Consulting Company registered in Spain. ForwardKeys is a Business Intelligence service bringing a new approach to operational traveller data intelligence for Hotels Chains, Tourism boards and Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) leveraging non confidential Air reservation information. ForwardKeys provides to:
DMOs and Tourism Boards with travellers’ trends information and means to monitor and measure the impact of their marketing efforts to drive more business to their destination.
Hotel chains with ways to quantify future demand and anticipate market trends to optimize sales, marketing and revenue management efforts, using traveller’s reservation, source market, arrival, return date and future travel information.

Contact information
Sébastien Cron, press@forwardkeys.com, +33 972 221 570